Holy Cross grad donates $25M to school

WORCESTER 
College of the Holy Cross alumnus Cornelius "Neil" B. Prior Jr. is giving the school the single largest gift in its history: $25 million for a new performance facility that he hopes will inject more fun and joy of the arts into students' education.

The donation was announced during a ceremony at the school this afternoon. Mr. Prior was on hand.

"I started to think about what I could leave behind," said Mr. Prior, 79, who graduated in 1956. He decided to "put it in something that was fun for me and for you."

He recalled how when one of the Catholic priests at the school started a fine arts course during Mr. Prior's years there, the class was held in the priest's room, because there was no place else.

Holy Cross has changed since then. In the introduction to today's announcement, the packed crowd in the Rehm Library watched a video of student theater, music, dance and art in action before live performances afterward.

Mr. Prior, who lives in the Virgin Islands, is chairman of the board of Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc., a Beverly-based telecommunications services company.